colinneagle writes: Naturally, news companies and other websites providing live streaming of election-related events have a lot on the line this year. As a content delivery network, Akamai works directly with such news sites as CNN, Fox News and Turner Broadcasting to ensure their Web broadcasts aren't interrupted. Coverage of this year's election has made for the first instance in which content providers are expressing concerns about hactivists launching distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, Wheaton says.

"They're looking out for all sorts of hackers," Wheaton says. "As you've seen, the activists move online in a much more aggressive way, and so news organizations have been attacked, as have presidential candidates. And obviously governmental sites have been attacked and that's been in the news quite a bit."

Content providers have been familiar with DDoS attacks for years. What's so concerning now is how much more severe the attacks have become, says Tom Hughes, managing director of nonprofit hosting provider VirtualRoad.org.

However, contrary to what Wheaton has seen, Hughes says concern about DDoS does not necessarily translate into action.

"I'm not going to name any names, but I've come across a number of Western media outlets that are not prepared for this, and who basically admit as such," Hughes says.